California Heart Center Foundation

The mission of the California Heart Center Foundation is to advance the field of cardiovascular medicine through clinical research initiatives and educational initiatives. Our efforts include the pursuit of collaborative research projects which promote a deeper understanding of disease progression and test the efficacy of new strategies for diagnosis and treatment. Areas of research currently being pursued include non-invasive methods to detect organ rejection, novel immunosuppressive agents, immune monitoring strategies, long-term complications such as cardiac allograft vasculopathy, (continued on schedule o)(continuation from form 990, page 2)novel methods for organ procurement and preservation, new mechanical circulatory support devices and pulmonary hypertension. The organization also supports important scientific symposia, which allow for the exchange of ideas among leaders in the field and provide a forum for experts to share their experience and knowledge with other practitioners. The organization resources are also leveraged to support a summer research internship program for undergraduate students with an interest in medicine and/or academic research. Following is a summary of projects and programs implemented in 2023: scientific forums and educational activities:* "success with failure: an advanced Heart disease symposium"this 1-day symposium on advanced Heart disease took place on friday, february 10th, 2023 at the hilton culver city. The symposium provided an in-depth review of diagnostics, therapeutic options and novel treatments in advanced Heart failure, mechanical circulatory support and transplantation. The program drew 170 attendees consisting of physicians, allied health professionals, including nurse practitioners, transplant coordinators, physician assistants, rns and case managers from across California. * "consensus conference: emerging understanding of antibodies and antibody-mediated rejection in Heart transplantation" (denver, co)endorsed by the international society of Heart & lung transplantation and organized and chaired by dr. kobashigawa, the consensus conference on the emerging understanding of antibodies and antibody-mediated rejection in Heart transplantation was held on tuesday, april 18th, 2023. Attended by 75 experts representing Heart transplant programs internationally, the conference was designed to provide a forum for an in-depth discussion among the leading experts in the field, with a view to evaluating evolving science in this area, as part of an update to previously held ishlt consensus conferences on sensitized patients awaiting Heart transplant (2008), antibody mediated rejection in Heart transplantation (2010), management of antibodies in Heart transplantation (2016). Inclusive of clinicians, immunologists, and pathologists, this meeting allowed for an expert review of new and established strategies for the detection, interpretation and treatment of antibodies pre and post Heart transplantation through a series of pre-meeting expert work group sessions which informed for the final forum. The resulting white paper is in development for publication. * "thomas d. gordon visiting professor in advanced Heart disease" october 2-3, 2023this annual visiting professorship has continued to be sponsored and organized by dr. kobashigawa. This year we had the honor of hosting dr. lynne stevenson, renowned Heart failure specialist and professor of medicine at vanderbilt university. This visit, held october 2nd-3rd, 2023 included a grand rounds lecture, one to one faculty meetings and a fellows' professional development discussion. Dr. stevenson's lecture on "reading between the guidelines for Heart failure" was extremely well received. * summer research internships: under the supervision and mentorship of dr. jon kobashigawa, summer Heart transplant research internships have been offered to students for the summer of 2023. These internships provide students at all levels of training an opportunity to learn the clinical research process, including medical literature review, study design, chart review/data collection, data analysis, and abstract development and submission. Completed abstracts were submitted to the american federation of medical research, a forum for junior investigators. This year's group includes students from:california university of science and medicinecornell universitycentral Michigan university college of medicinepomona collegerutgers universityuniversity of Nevada medical schoolwestern university college of osteopathic medicine* Heart transplant journal clubsjournal clubs continue to be held in a virtual format and have maintained strong participation, with an average attendance of 25 people at each session. The following session(s) have been implemented or scheduled: january 23rd, 2023 - 4:00pm - 5:00pm "clinical prediction model for antibody-mediated rejection: a strategy to minimize surveillance endomyocardial biopsies after Heart transplantation" presenter: dr. pratyaksch srivastava april 4th, 2023 - 4:00pm - 5:00pm "left atrial to coronary sinus shunting for treatment of symptomatic Heart failure" presenter: dr. lily stern november 2nd, 2023 - 4:00pm - 5:00pm "catheter ablation in end-state Heart failure with atrial fibrillation" presenter: dr. ritesh shreshta clinical research:this section is formatted by category; study name; principal investigator (pi).